An Immense New Power to Heal: The Promise of Personalized Medicine

Abstract

Reviews the book, An Immense New Power to Heal: The Promise of Personalized Medicine by Lee Gutkind and Pagan Kennedy (2012). This is a compelling book examining the hope and hype of genomics and personalized medicine. The author is not an expert in the field. At times in this book, that is painfully obvious, at other times, the outsider view is interesting and refreshing. An appropriate target audience, in the reviewer's view, would be medical students, undergraduates, introductory genetic counseling students, and the general public. This book provides a realistic and insightful portrayal of genomic medicine as it currently stands and accurately presents barriers and possibilities for the future. It is refreshing that a work of creative nonfiction can be so highly engaging, while appropriately capturing the complexities and nuances of genomic testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)